This invention relates to musical instruments, particularly stringed wooden instruments such as the violin, guitar, cello, piano sounding board, or bass viol.
My invention is usable during the manufacture of stringed wooden instruments (or bows used with stringed wooden instruments) to improve the tonal quality of the instruments (by increasing the resonance characteristics).
To facilitate discussion of my invention, I will describe it in connection with violins. It will become apparent that the invention is capable of being practiced with other musical instruments.
Violins usually comprise front plates, back plates and interconnecting side walls (sometimes termed ribs). The front plate and back plate are relatively thin wooden slabs having thicknesses ranging from about 0.10 inch near peripheral areas thereof to about 0.17 inch in central areas thereof. As the bow is drawn over the violin strings the string vibrations are transmitted through the associated bridge to the front plate and then to the back plate. Both plates are caused to vibrate, thereby compressing and expanding the air within the space enclosed by the plates so as to produce a musical note.
In order to enhance the resonance (vibrational) characteristics of the violin the violin maker sets relatively close tolerances on the front and back plate, whereby the peripheral areas of each plate are caused to flex in unison (together) so as to produce as great a deflection of the plate central area as possible.
As far as I know, the use of close tolerances is the principal means of controlling the tonal quality of violins. The assumption is that wood is a homogeneous uniform substance that will consistently perform in the same given manner if manufacturing tolerances are closely controlled.